It is not very often that when
traveling on business that on multiple occasions a high
school football coach will catch a traveler's attention,
but that is exactly what happened to a couple of us
while visiting the Dallas, Texas area in the 1999s.
That high school coach was Art Briles, who was then the
head football coach at Stephenville High School in
Stephenville, Texas, and the reference to Briles that we
heard were almost always to a "spread offense" that he
was running, which was piling up tons of yards and
plenty of points. It is very hard for a successful
high school football coach to transition to the college
game, so a few of us took note when Briles joined Mike
Leach's staff at Texas Tech, and when he took over as
the head coach at Houston in 2003, only four years
removed from Stephenville High School. That was
quite a rise for Art Briles, but he has proven himself
on every level, and more importantly he has shown that
he can handle the public relations and media side of
being a head football coach in college, which is huge
part of the job. In the last few months we have
watched several football games of when Briles was at
Houston, and his team's are just very well coached, and
the offense he ran at Houston has an uncanny knack of
getting people into space with the football. We
watched the Houston-Alabama game from 2007 recently, and
Houston had every opportunity in the world to beat the
Tide in Tuscaloosa, and watching that game makes us
believe that Briles may be one of the few men that can
take on the very tough challenge that is Baylor football
and succeed.

In the last 6 years Baylor has won
21 football games. That is just an amazing number
for a BCS conference school and since Art Briles has
been coaching football in Texas for almost 30
years, he surely realizes the size of the mountain he
has to climb in Waco. Briles brings three things
to Baylor that will hold him in good stead, the first
being a very unique and flexible offensive system that
will allow Baylor to compete against teams that have
more talent than the Bears. The second thing
Briles brings to Baylor is a no-nonsense attitude that
has surely already ended any foolishness in Waco, and
gotten everyone on the Bears team to focus on what they
need to do to play winning football. The last
thing that Briles brings to Baylor is a vision, and one
should never underestimate the importance of a clear
vision to football players on how a football team is
going to get from where they are to where they want to
go. College football players pay a huge price to
get themselves ready to play the game of football, and
it is terribly demoralizing to individual players and to
the team if the head coach does not have a vision to
where he wants to take the program. A compelling
and constantly updated vision for a football program is
important for current head coaches, but it is especially
important for new coaches that are taken over troubled
and demoralized football teams. As former North
Carolina head coach Bill Dooley said, "In turning a
program around, the hardest thing to do is convincing
players that they can win." From what we have
heard from people around the Baylor football program,
Briles is already well on his way to convincing his
players that they can win football games, and there is
little doubt among the team about the offense, the
attitude, and plan that Briles has for the Baylor
football program going forward. Turnarounds don't
happen overnight, and year 1 under Art Briles at Baylor
will be one of the most interesting teams to watch of
2008.

Coaches Hot Seat
Bottom Line

We predict that
Art Briles and Baylor will have a 3-9 record in 2008.
In the opening game of the season in Waco against Wake
Forest, Art Briles will be able to point to the Demon
Deacons as the type of football program that Baylor can
become. Both Baylor and Wake Forest are private,
religious-associated schools and as Briles watches Jim
Grobe's team in week 1, he will surely be imagining the
type of football team he can build in Waco. In
what should be an interesting game to watch, we see Wake
Forest getting the win over the Bears, which drops the
Baylor record to 0-1. In week 2 Northwestern State
visits Baylor, and this should be the first win in the
Art Briles era with the Bears. After two games,
Baylor is

1-1. In week 3, Paul Wulff brings his new
Washington State team to Waco, and playing a game deep
in the heart of Texas will be quite a shock for the
Cougars, especially in September. This is a game
that both teams and coaches will really need to win,
because wins for Washington State and Baylor will
probably be few and far between in '08. In a close
game, we lean towards Baylor getting the win with the
home field advantage, which raises the Bears record to
2-1. In another fascinating non-conference game,
Baylor travels to New England to play UConn in week 4.
The UConn Huskies surprised in 2007, and they have lots
of starters back from a 9 win team, and UConn should
have too much experience for Baylor in this game.
After four games, Baylor is 2-2. The Big 12 season
gets underway in week 5 with the mighty Oklahoma Sooners
arriving in Waco, and the difference in talent between
Oklahoma and Baylor will be palpable. Oklahoma
might really get their offense rolling in this game, and
if the Sooners are motivated on defense they should be
able to shut down the Baylor offense as well. OU
has too much for BU, and thus Baylor's record drops to
2-3. Gene Chizik and Iowa State arrive in Waco in
week 6, and this is one of the Big 12 games on Baylor's
schedule that they have a real shot of winning. In
a very close game, we give the slightest of advantages
to Iowa State, and a loss to the Cyclones drops the
Baylor record to 2-4. Baylor travels to Oklahoma
State in week 7, and Stillwater is a very difficult
place to play for all teams, but especially for Big 12
teams that OSU has the talent advantage on. In a
closer game than expected, OSU gets the win over the
Bears, which drops the Baylor record to 2-5.
Baylor visits Lincoln, Nebraska in week 8 to play Bo
Pelini and the Huskers, and this should be an
interesting game to watch on both sides of the ball.
Baylor's spread offense may give Nebraska some problems
in the first half, but the Huskers should pull away for
the win in the 2nd. After 8 games, Baylor's record
drops to 2-6. The Missouri Tigers visit Waco in
week 9, and Briles will certainly know the offense that
Mizzou will be running very well, because it is very
similar to what he has run in the state of Texas for
years. Baylor doesn't have the talent to hang with
Missouri, so another loss drops the Baylor record to
2-7. In week 10 Baylor travels to Austin to play
the Texas Longhorns and Texas is another one of those
Big 12 teams that is just loaded with talent. This
game shouldn't be close, and yet another loss drops the
Baylor record to 2-8. In week 11, Texas A&M visits
Waco, and no doubt many Baylor fans remember well the
2004 win against A&M. With two first year coaches
in Briles and Sherman, we see a close game, with Baylor
getting a slight upset and a big win, which raises the
Bears record to 3-8. In week 12 Baylor travels to
Lubbock to play Mike Leach and Texas Tech, and this will
be a homecoming game of sorts for Briles. Texas
Tech might be playing for a big postseason trip, but
this will be a fun game to watch as the ball should be
in the air on about 75% of the plays. In the end,
the Red Raiders will have too much for Baylor, and that
will drop the Baylor regular season record in 2008 to
3-9.

Not much is expected from Art Briles in year one at
Baylor, because there is not enough talent nor enough
confidence inside of his players yet to pull off many
upsets, and since the Bears will be an underdog to most
teams they play, the expectations cannot be too high in
'08. The future is what is important for Briles
and Baylor, and the expectations in the coming years
will certainly be to move the Bears to a perennial
winning football program, and with reasonable
non-conference schedules (not like 2008) that will
certainly be a possibility, and probably a certainty
under Briles. Winning football seasons at Houston
was an impressive accomplishment by Briles, but turning
Baylor into a winner would be a minor, no make that a
major miracle, and that will give all of us an
opportunity to see just how good of football coach Art
Briles really is. We would bet on Briles at this
moment.